


The Killing Shot

by In_The_Ghost_Mode



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst and Humor, BUT HE LIVES, Blood, Bunny gets better charicter growth, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Tried, Jack Dies, Jack has a terrible sence of humore when his insides are being torn to shreads, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pitch is evil here, an AU where pitch shoots jack instead of Sandy, and thus the guardians realize how messed up it was involving jack into a litteral battle feild, read and weep, really fun to write acually, super evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-14 20:51:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14777036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_The_Ghost_Mode/pseuds/In_The_Ghost_Mode
Summary: As said in the tags, Jack takes the final hit, rather than Sandy.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

Pitch was fast, and it obvious that he knew that from the way his teeth gleamed when he pulled back on his arrow, aimed squarely onto Sandy’s back.

Pitch was fast, but the wind was faster, and so was Jack Frost.

It went like a blur. Like, a dream. The leap, the push. The arrow piercing from the back to the chest. The blood, the stumble.

Jack’s hands trembled to his chest where the arrow peeked from his blue hoodie.

Rust. Jack Frost bleeds the color of black rust.

His blood was once as red as molten rubies. Or like crushed, ripe raspberries. But that color faded as the centuries past. And even though he’s the in the midst of battle, Jack Frosts wonders if there’ll be a day where he runs dry from red, and bleed only lake water. Because that’s all he bleeds now, old lake water and stagnant blood.

Shedding his thoughts like old skin, he turns around. Despite the rust colored blood running thick up his throat and pouring from the mouth, Jack’s lips pull into a tooth-stained gleeful grin.

“Hey, _boogie man_ , A shot to the back?” He gurgled. But Jack has long ago learned how to speak with a lungful of liquid. “I thought you were made of fear, not _cowardice_.”

Pitch looked down, gold eyes giving a shine alike to a wildcat’s. Looking both intrigued yet apathetic.

“Well, boy. You weren’t what I was going for. Pity. But I suppose this will do,” Once more, the black sand swirled, shifting as it formed to another arrow and took its aim. “I suppose I should put you down in mercy. It tears you from the inside out, eh?”

He wasn’t wrong. Pitch’s Dark sand was inside of Jack Frost, yes. And it was constantly spiking outwards tearing bits of flesh and bone mellow from the inside. Making the skin churn and ripple.

“ _It hurts, doesn’t it, **Jack Frost**_?”

 Jack Frost wasn’t sure about the other Guardians. Where were they? It was probably the nightmares that distracted them. Then again, right now Jack wasn’t exactly a pretty sight.

Pitch was taking an awfully long time to let his arrow fly once more. He crackles, and it makes the kind of noise like white static, “Then again, maybe I should see if the first one finishes the job.” His eyes gleam, “an _experiment_ , if you will,” The arrow dissolves. “Slow deaths were always so _delicious_ after all, though some might argue that’s just preference.”

 Here, is when Sandy snaps out of shock and _loses_ it. His face twists and consorts in wrath as all the dreamsand transforms to a storm. And it’s a _storm_. It’s bigger than life, all while Jack’s safe in the eye of the hurricane

Was Sandy always there? … Huh. That’s nice.

It was too easy, to keep standing. It wasn’t like he could feel it, not really. His nerve endings should’ve brought him to his knees. He should be suffocating with all the blood, water and bits of torn skin clogging at his throat. He should be dead.

But he doesn’t need to breathe, hasn’t for the longest time. His nerve endings have long numbed and seeded deep into his dome, Jack knew enough to know that whoever he is, alive isn’t one of them.

So instead, Jack rolls his neck, bounces on the balls of his feet and march back into battle. Staff still in hand.

The Guardians were lacking, and quite frankly this wasn’t Jack Frost’s first bloody rodeo.

Jack Frost glanced around. Storms, that was the theme Sandy was working with.

Jack’s grin broadens. He could work with storms.

He raises his staff, and all cold hell runs loose.

It was, a joy storm; no other words could describe it. His ice grows and twists up from the ground like gnarled hands. Crushing the life from the nightmares as far as the eye could see. The Snow, the hail rained down like daggers, like thin sheets of clear blue glass.

From the distance, Jack could hear Bunny scowl and it was _glorious_. “Oi, mate! Ease up on the ice-” Bunny cut himself off and gave a strangled breath as he saw Jack.

Jack gave a warm smile that made more blood oozing from his lips. He was moving with a bit of a hunch now, his core too damaged to support his full weight anymore and he was leaning on his staff. “Now I don’t-” Jack wheezed, more blood gushed. “Look that bad, don’t I?”

Suddenly, the Bunny was gone and down the rabbit hole so to speak.

Jack raised his brows, because _wow_ that was quick.

However, he yelped when Bunny appeared right next to him and swooped him up into his arms.

The wind bristled Bunny’s fur. “We need ta’ get outta here, _fast_.”

“Yeah, cuz I totally didn’t-” Jack swallowed the bale and the blood. “-Make a snowstorm as a distraction or anything.”

If Jack expected a jab back or banter from Bunny, it didn’t happen.

The blood was starting to crystallize as it made pathways like thick roots down Jack’s arms and dripped down to the snow-white ground. “ ’m fine. Scouts honor.”

Bunny gave a broken laugh, wet and thick. His eyes looked a bit glassy, too. But that had to be Jack’s imagination.

Jack Frost bit his lip and leaned back, he did what he could and eyed his surroundings.

… Were they moving? Since when? Moving pretty fast too.

Jack winced as North takes a sharp intake and Tooth makes a terrible moaning sound that was too close to grief.

And North was crying, him and Sandy, although Sandy’s looked more like tears of rage rather than Norths grief and Bunny as well as Tooth looked just _angry_. With hands balled into fists, hackles raised, teeth shown into a snarl and _everything_.

 Naw, that can’t be right. His view was darkening, after all, Jack’s eyes start to get heavy. And, well, that can’t be good because Jack doesn’t sleep. He never sleeps. He wasn’t hearing things right either and the world felt lop-sided.

Red. Jack turns his head and see’s the color red. It’s so pretty, on worn wood like that. So much brighter and so much lovelier then the corrupted red slashed on his chest. They had to be on Norths sled, right? That’s where Jack Frost had to be.

He eyes the other four and gives a warm smile. “Look… guys…” It was getting hard to breathe. Not that Jack needs to live, but he needs his lungs to speak. “You guys… are freaking out… ov’er… over nothing.” The last word he barely wheezed out.

“Mate, you need to shut _the hell_ up.” Bunny says, “You need to breathe-”

_No, I don’t_. “Aw, you do” Jack’s head loped to the left, “…care.”

Bunny says nothing as his lips tighten.

Jack’s breath stuttered as his smile faded. “Hey, listen… all of you. Please put me in… in my lake. Please… please put me back. The one in burgess.”

Bunny makes a chuckle that’s just as broken and soft as his laugh. “Look, snowflake, yur not going anywhere, alright? And that’s a pond, mate. Not a lake.”

The other Guardians shoot Bunny a glair as Jack barked a laugh.

“Don’t d-dis my place, ‘k?”

“Build a bridge, then.”

Jack gave Bunny a look, “What… on earth is that… supposed to mean?”

“Get over it.”

North face-palmed. And Jack Frost roared with laughter, blood pooled from his mouth and gushed out of his wound, and the bits of nightmare sand twisted inside as though it was alive.

Jack’s laugh sounded so weak though, even to his own ears. It sounds so small, too easily lost to the howling wind. His chest slowed to a stop as he looked up at the star spotted sky. He forced a breath, he has so much to say. He has so much to say because god knows when someone can listen.

“You’re all so warm. The stars are warm. Isn’t that funny?” Jack slowly brought up his blood-stained hand. Colors and shapes were fading. “I like being warm… it’s so much nicer than the cold…” Jack focused on the sky again as he shook his head, “I don’t mind though. I have to.” Jack Frost felt the magic, or whatever kept him ‘moving’ slowing to a stop. Jack looks at all the Guardians, “The lake is so cold…”

The world goes black, and Jack goes limp.

_…_

 

The Guardians looked down at the body because that’s what it is now, with a collective, painful numbness.

Except for Bunny. His paws shake and his shoulders tremble. “I told that fuck’en _idiot_ to shut _up_.”

The sled parked in the north pole cave, and the world felt too still. _Jack_ was too still, and his eyes had yet to close. North couldn’t find it in him to stand. “Even if he did, Aster, there would not been time. Not enough. We used ze snow globe and did what we could,”

“He was just a _child_.” Tooth’s wings quivered, and her feathers raised like daggers, “We’re the Guardians of childhood and we couldn’t even protect just _one_.”

 The other guardians withered and recoiled from the venom in her voice.

“We _know_ Pitch. We know what he is willing and can do. But we dragged Jack into it anyway! We used his own memories as bait. We dragged a child into a battle because of what? Huh? Because Manny _told_ us to? Because, god forbid if instead, he gives us a plan or a strategy or-”

 “C’mon Tooth, The man in the Moon-”

“Jack’s dead, Aster. His insides were torn to shreds while he was still _alive_ ,” Suddenly Tooth looked so tired and so worn as if she aged a hundred years in a single moment. “What… what excuse can possibly erase that?”

Silence weighed down on the frost-riddled cave.

Gold-tinted tears followed the curves of Sandy’s face. He still hasn’t stop weeping and his chest is stuttering, but as always, no noise. No sound. His eyes never leave Jack’s as the sand above his head form to the shape of Jacks body than a question mark.

“Vhut to do… with body? … Easy, sandy,” North’s legs wobbled as he stood, “We follow Jack’s wishes.”

“We can’t…” Bunny’s fur bristled, “you really expect us to just- just _dump_ Jack’s body like it’s nothing!?” He tightened his hold of Jack’s corpse, “Hide him away from the world like a _mistake_?!”

 “Don’t- don’t say it like that.” Tooth’s wings quivered, her fists shook, and her eyes began to pool over, but not without their fill of fire. “Don’t _ever_ say it like… _that_.”

 Sandy showed an image of Jack looking up at the night sky, like a videotape on record.

“It… it was his last demand, I know,” Bunny blankly looked down at the bloody body, “I know.”

Slowly, North pulled out a snow globe. “Burgess.” He says. And with a symphony of shattered glass, the Guardians were gone.

_. . ._

 

The guardians must’ve followed his wishes because it was the underwater currents that woke Jack up. His eyes snapped open.

Blue and black.

The world, if only for a moment, was a dark, dark blue. A contrast to the moon-white sand that his back pressed against.

Slowly, Jack sat up and placed a hand on his chest. The Nightmare sand must’ve thought it done its job and went back to Pitch or something because it was gone. So was the scar, the once gaping hole. Hell, there wasn’t even a scar.

Jack smirked because, _ha, knew it_. Just per usual, nothing to worry about.

His smile faded though as he looked down his hoodie at his pale, blank chest. There wasn’t even a blood stain, it was like it never happened. As if Jack didn’t even exist.

He slowly looked around at is surrounding, his hair and clothes swayed with the currents.

Currents. They always led everything into the same place, the same cycle. If he was right, his body should be around here somewhere. Not like he never saw it before. It also meant that his staff should show up, eventually. Magic or otherwise, it always came back.

Jack Frost stretched his arms, it was a long swim back to the top.

Here was where Jack zoned out a bit, the blue turning into lighter shades and bit by bit, sunlight danced in water. The water around him thickening to ice from the cold he gave off, slushing from his swimming strokes upwards.

Eventually, his eyes peaked above the surface, he must’ve been swimming at an angle because in a few footsteps he would be on the shore.

“HOLY _FUCK_.” Bunny scrambled back, “ _fuck, fuck, fuck_ \- What?” He muttered, ears flatting against his skull. “The bloody _fuck_?!”

 Jack made a face. What, on _earth_ , was Bunny still doing here? He awkwardly drifted in place. Bunny’s hackles raised as he snarled and jerked a finger at him. “ _You,_ you gotta lot of explan’en to do- I just- how?! How mate,”

 Jack had frost curling across his cheeks, his eyelids, his lips, and his hair, everything that was out of the water. His eyes flickered around nervously, conveying the silent message of; _can you please go away_?

 “Listen up snowflake, I thought you were dead. We thought you were _dead_. For fuck’s sake you died in my arms _we watched you_ -” Bunny shook his head. “Explain, _now_.”

 Now that Jack was in the winds reach, he drifted off the water and landed next to Bunny close to the shore. He took a step back and raised a finger, asking for a moment.

“Naw mate, when I say now I meant-”

The water that laid rest in Jacks' lungs oozed and pooled out of Jack’s mouth, his chest shook and withered into itself as he made a terrible coughing noise until it was all out.

“… Listen,” Jack rubbed the corners of his mouth with his sleeve as he straightened his posture once more, “Just so you know, that was way more awkward for me. No question,”

Brows raised, and jaw open, Bunny looks like he had absolutely no idea on what to do with himself.

“So… uh, See?” Jack gave a lopsided smile, “Told you I’d be fine.”

Here, was where Bunny nearly lost it, “And ya didn’t have the _mind_ to tell us that?! More importantly, you knew that this would happen?!”

 “Ok, one kangaroo, I did. I told you the absolute best that delirious and bleeding out me could! Not…” Jack faltered. “ _completely_ my fault,”

 Bunny pinched the bridge of his nose, “Bloody _hell_ mate.”

 “And second- don’t make that face I’m about to explain something important here, _second_ ;” Jack gestured to his completely healed self, “ I don’t know the details, exactly. But the couple times I had a really bad fight this is what happened afterward, alright?”

 “This isn’t the first time you died?!”

“It’s like, second or third dozen. Get with the program Bunny, anyways, when it comes to the physical, minor stuff, nothing happens. Not a scratch, I’m fine. magical? On the other hand? Well, you saw _that_ ,” Said Jack.

 “What…” Bunny glanced at the shore, “does the pond have anything to do with it?”

“Lake, Bunny. I just died here, again, I get to call it a lake.” Jack shrugged. “And honestly? Nothing. I reformed out of it before, it’s just a mixture of preference and it’s the least likely place where anyone can watch me reform, cuz sorry, the possibility of you guys watching my rotting body do whatever it does just, isn’t an attractive idea to me.”

“… Weirdest logic by far, but fair, I suppose?” Bunny says blankly. “Sorry, just… this’s a lot to prosses. ‘m feel’en real conflicted right now. Deck you? Celebrate? No clue, it’s all up in the air.”

“Fair, I guess,” Jack drifted up a few feet into the air, looking around. “But, hey, uh. Do you guys have my staff, by any chance?”

“Yeah, it’s, well. Mate, It’s in Norths place.”

Jack drifted back down a bit. “Alright.”

“You were dead for about an hour.”

“… Okay? Good to know?”

“All rest are still in there, I reckon.”

_Oh_. “Someone’s going to kick my ass, right?”

 Bunny gave a sly smirk. “Probably.”

“Oh. Wonderful.” A pause. “And Pitch is still at large so we need to get back as soon as possible?”

“Yup.”

Jack rubbed his eyes, “ _Great_.” Jack hesitated before he peaked between his fingers, “Bunny?”

 “hmm?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but, uh.” Jack lowered his hands, “What were you doing by my lake?”

“… We Pooka grieve differently.” There was something solemn in Bunny’s voice, distant. “We contemplate how he knew them, meditate, what-not. The others wanted to do their own ceremony from their own cultures cuz what you asked for was… not specific.”

Jack shifted, frost flaking thickly down his arms, his torso, and his legs now that he was properly out of the water.

“Anyways, they got the staff before it would go where, uh, where the rest of ya was. And I got… and I got here.”

Jack honestly has no clue on how to properly respond to that. “I’m… I’m sorry, that made you guys go through… that.”

 Bunny gave him an odd look before he shook his head. “Don’t matter much now, but yer gonna have to take the tunnels with me back, I don’t think the others would believe me if I got there first an’ there’s _no way_ I’m keeping my yap closed for a _moment_ about this.”

 With that, down the rabbit hole, they went.

 

 


	2. The After Effect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up 'rooned' is Australian slang for 'ruined' basically and I tried? I hope you guyed liked this one as much as the first chapter.

 

Floating lights dimly light the area, and the dirt walls had a gleam to them, a layer or something to keep them (or really just Bunny) from breathing in the soil. There were none of the usual races in the tunnels. No banter, no wind. Nothing. Just mild warmth, and Bunny pretending not to glance at Jack Frost whenever he thought that he wasn’t paying attention.

Jack’s skin prickled as if static buzzed under his skin and his posture stiffened. If Pitch wasn’t going to kill him again this, surely would. “So, uh. You got an hour of peace from my meddling. Must’ve felt great, huh kangaroo?” The words darted from his lips before Jack could even remember what he had spoken. Was that said wrong? He wouldn’t know. Regardless, Jack _really_ wishes that he had his staff. Maybe he would finally have something to do with his stiff hands-

“You don’t breathe.”

Jack jolted, the air hissed softly through his teeth. “-what?”

“I can’t believe I just bloody noticed this,” Bunny stared through Jack like how the moon once loomed over him through the ice, his expression just as blank and untelling. “you don’t breathe. Not unless yer talkin’”

Jack stared back blankly. “… er, thanks?”

An ear twitched, “Was it always like that?”

“Could you maybe… not ask these questions?” Where was Jack’s staff when he needed it? His hands felt so stiff, too rigid. Chapped from the frost. They need to be doing something. They need something to do _now_. He tightened his hands to fists then uncurled his fingers. “It’s kinda a personal question.”

“I was a Spirit of life before the Guardian of hope, it’s kinda my job ta know.”

Jack blinked. Ice roared in his chest.

Life?

“Well go on mate, tell me. Was it always like this?”

Jack Frost remembered it so vibrantly.

_Lifted by the small of his back like a rag doll. Body numb and limp. Legs dangling. Arms twisting down, and neck hanging from his shoulders. Face turned to the moon all the same_

_As he was slowly up-righted, he twitched. Then violently his whole body_ wreathed _. Oxygen invaded as his lungs twisted the water out with so much force that Jack for the first time saw a pinkish red mixed in with the lake water from his lips then to his hands as soon as he rubbed it off the corners of his mouth._

 _The air was so_ clear _, and the wind encompassed the world as the moon stared down to it._

 _Hands on his neck, fingers spread on his throat he took gulping breaths because he could_ taste _the air. Even if it burned his throat; It felt so smooth, like velvet to his raw lungs compared to the thick water that before refused to_ get out _._

_And the world had colors. Who knew? Who would’ve dared to dream that there was more to it then black? Who would’ve ever thought that he just had to **open his eyes**? Red was such a lovely color. The world was such a lovely blue-_

Strings. Jack’s hands fumbled with the strings on his hoodie before rolling his eyes. “Yeah, alright. It was like this as far as I can remember, ever since when Manny first pulled me out of the lake. You good now?”

“She’ll be right as soon as everyone knows you ain’t dead.”

Jack winced. “… Sorry.”

Bunny’s pink nose twitched as he furrowed his brows and his long ears leaned back against his skull. “We’ll talk about this later.” He hesitated. “I’ll go out first, don’t want ya giv’en anyone a heart attack,”

“We’re here?!”

Bunny looked up, “Yup. Ready?”

“Hell nah,”

“Too bad.”

Jack raised his brows as a hole collapsed on top of Bunny, soil pushing itself aside before it could bury them in. Crouch down on all fours, Bunny then leaped out of sight. And Jack was alone in the dimly lit tunnels and the mouth of the opening, allowing a soft yellow pale light to engulf him.

Slowly, Jack sat down on the ground. Eyes facing skyward, legs crossed and his heart throbbing at his throat.

. . .

 

The creak of the doors echoed as soon as he pushed through. The workshop was too quiet. The overwhelming noise was finally gone. The horrible whirling had finally stopped, the constant brain drilling tics of the clocks, the clanks of metal gears became put to a pause. No hammers on nails, no sawing of the wood, and no music.

Finally, there was peace. And Aster E. Bunnymund hated every second of it.

“Aster,” North already looked so tired. His body hunched over to a silver make-shift memorial that they undoubtedly made by hand. “You are back.”

“Are you here to take…” From the top of the memorial, Tooth lightly picked up the shepherd’s crook and instinctively pulled it close to her chest. “take the staff back to- to Jack?”

Sandy looked like he has been crying for hours and with how his face twisted, he looked like he was about to cry all over again. Bunny himself made a face and stiffened because oh, my god this was going to be hard. With the room like this, it was hard to remember that _he_ was still alive-

_Blizzards and white swallowed the world. All with, perhaps, a strange blue hue. Powerful yet filled with a strange jubilation, this had Jack Frost written all over it._

_“Oy mate! Ease up on the ice-” But the words choked his throat as soon as he saw_ him _. Skin rippling where the black sand must’ve struck his chest. Bunny has never seen blood like that. A dark brown-red. Dripping from the mouth and flooding from the chest, it vibrantly showed on his pale skin and snow._

_“Now I don’t-” Jack wheezed, more blood gushed. Eyes crinkled, playfully smiling all the same, “Look that bad, don’t I?”_

_Bunny doesn’t even remember what happened next or how he got there, but the next moment he had the small, knobbly-kneed child scooped up in his arms. Blood contaminating and clotting his grey fur._

_A body never felt more like draining hourglass. Where was the damn sled when in the one-and-a-million-likelihood he wanted it? “We need ta’ get outta here,_ fast _.”_

_“Yeah, cuz I totally didn’t-” Jack made a watery gulping sound that almost had Bunny’s stomach drop to his feet and filled him with nausea, “-Make a snowstorm as a distraction or anything.”_

_… Distractions were always good. And lo behold, there was the cursed sled. As well as he could with two legs, Aster E. Bunnymund_ ran _. It felt awkward and clunky. ‘Running’ for Bunny required all fours, so ‘running’ on two legs looked more like a hop mixed with a gallop._

_He could feel the blood making thick trails down his paws. Because of the wind bits splashed on his legs and torso, painting bits of the air like a red flag or torn ribbons. Chunks of Jacks torn skin flaked off like paper, but Bunny wasn’t going to think of that._

_In all the static in his mind, a voice gurgled, “ ’m fine. Scouts honor,”_

_Bloody liar. Desperate, desperate liar._

_But was it wrong, that he laughed? Was it wrong, that he refused to cry-_

“Bunny…” Tooth says, “Are you alright?

Right. Ok. Jack was not dead, Jack was right where he left him, and soon everyone else will know that too. This was a delicate situation that deserved nothing less than precision, like painting his eggs. He had all the other guardians attention: it was now or never.

“Jack’s not dead.” The words didn’t process until a split second later, and his eyes widen.

Damnit.

North blinked. “Come again?”

“I- well. Mate, ya see-” Just like that, any soothing speech Bunny had prepared leaped out the window. His thoughts scrammed, and his tongue twisted into knots that clogged his throat. “Um…”

Alright, screw this.

“Jack! Damn it all to hell, please come the bloody hell out,”

In a terrible, heart-stopping moment. There was a pause. And Bunny _knew it_. That kid must run or fly with the wind to god knows where, of course, he couldn’t leave Jack Frost for a _fucking moment_ -

The grand larger-than-life red, and gold accented wooden door ever so slowly, creaked open. The tension that Bunny didn’t know he had in his muscles, in his face unexpectant loosened. His arms drooped as suddenly in a shadow of a second, he wondered if Jack Frost emerging from the lake was nothing more than a broken dream or a phantasm beyond the grave.

But all the room (except Bunny) paled, and the cold came misting in soon as Jack Frost cautiously toed into the room.

Many things happened at once.

Jacks staff clattered to the ground as Tooth let out a gasp, North screamed in Russian that loosely translated to: _“HOLY GOD PISSING SHIT!”,_ and Sandy flashed over to give Jack Frost the most engulfing hug Bunny has ever witness, nearly toppling Jack over to the ground and with Sandy’s sand-like embodiment, it was almost like seeing a metal ball become partly absorbed in magnetic putty.

Tooth made a squeal as she also rushed over, almost toppling the three of them only saved last minute by North scooping all of them up in the air, crying thick dense tears and still cursing and blubbering in Russian.

Bunny, naturally, with his arms crossed rolled his eyes. Simultaneously trying to drown out the gooey warmth that was currently invading his heart and chest.

Above Sandy’s head, a question mark formed with his gold sand then came a picture of Jack Frosts hoodie, and lastly with wavering hesitation showed a picture to Jacks limp body on the sled, finishing with one last question mark.

“Yes Jack, how did you survive?!” Tooth didn’t let go, but she leaned back to take a good look of him. “Sandy says that you-you took a shot for him,”

Bunny stiffened, _this_ was news.

“Do you need recovery, good friend?” Said North, “And did you get a new hoodie, somehow?"

Bunny and Jack shared a tight-lipped glance.

“Bunny…” Jack said slowly as everyone slowly let go. “I don’t think they’ll believe me,”

This couldn’t be what Bunny thought Jack was asking. It couldn’t be, “You want me to say everything? All of it?”

The rest of the Guardians looked between them, confused.

The two stared at each other before Bunny shifted. “In truth mates, Jack never survived.”

North looked at Jack, then back to Bunny. “… What?”

“He’s, well-” Once more Bunny’s words stumbled

“Alright, give me the mike,” Jack said. “Everyone? I’m dead. Pitch didn’t ‘kill’ me because I was dead long before I met you guys. Or Pitch, for the matter.”

Bunny facepalmed.

Tooth blinked, “But… what about- you died, again? Before? Ugh,” Tooth shook her head, “You were _dead_. You were bleeding and- and…”

Jack Frost shifted, “I have- can… regenerate? Kind of? It only happens when I die, again, but it’s kind of like I go… in reverse?” His hands fumbled, making a revolving shape. “It’s like it didn’t happen, when it- _I’m_ done. It’s like the event never existed like I don’t…” A pause and he lowered his hands tight to his sides. “Yeah.”

“Must say,” Bunny said, “Ya gave me one hell of a heart attack when you came pop’en out of the pond.”

“Lake. It’s a lake! I died in there, I get to call it what I want. It’s a _lake_.” Jack rolled his eyes, reached out and with help of the wind his staff zoomed to his hand like a magnet. And for that, he finally got a good look at the memorial.

“Is… is that for me?”

As Bunny looked around, he reckoned that their silence was a yes.

And by the way Jack ‘subtly’ looked down and rubbed his red-rimmed eyes, he gathered that Jack Frost came to the same conclusion, too.

_. . ._

 

As Aster. E Bunnymund found when they went back to battle, Pitch was terribly indifferent. Even now Bunny’s nose wrinkled, and his face screwed at the event.

_Pitch was in the center of Bunny’s almost beyond repairable warren (not on time for Easter, at least). “Oh,” his brows raised as he looked down at Jack. “You live. How eventful,”_

_Jack’s teeth gleamed. “Yeah, sure. Let’s call it that.”_

_“If it’s to any consolation,” Pitch had an intrigued, almost hungry gleam to his eye. “Even if the conclusion failed to my expectation I had a_ ball _with the experiment itself.” Pitch’s lips stretched back to a grin, “At least I know that the ‘official’ guardians empathy has worn thin enough to allow a spirit, a child of one at the least into a battle of five against- what?” Pitch gestured to the nightmares that had them surrounded by all sides, as far as the eye could see. “An army? How ironic. How pathetically desperate.”_

_At that point, somebody roared, though it could have been him himself. He didn’t know, he didn't notice, and he didn’t care. All Bunny saw was red-_

Seeing Jack’s death as nothing more than an experiment. Like a cat playing with its mouse. Typical. Just disgustingly typical.

While they were all ‘distracted’ as Pitch kindly put it with Jack’s so-called-death, the Warren was rooned. Believers went down fast until Jack somehow got a child named Jamie Bennet to keep his belief in them and gain a new one for Jack.

From the impression Bunny had, while Jack was out scouting for the enemy (behind all their backs, alone. Naturally.) Pitch murdered him once more from the way he flinched when asked ‘what happened?’ But Jack wasn’t talking, and he is certainly the last spirit to try and make him.

But once Jack figured how to get kids laughing at Pitch’s expense, it all quickly fell into place. They won. End of story.

The wind swayed his fur from where he sat outside in the front of Norths workshop. It was dark, and the silver moon was already waning. The cold was numbing, terrible, and uncomfortable at best. But all the same, Bunny couldn’t move back inside.

And at that point, he didn’t know how long he sat.

“Hey, Kangaroo,”

An ear twitched.

“What’s eating you?”

Bunny turned around where Jack Frost was standing and raised a brow, “What?”

Jack rolled his eyes as he sat down next to him, tossing a dense dark brown water-proof blanket. “You hate the cold almost as much as you hate me, what’s up.” It wasn’t a question.

Bunny fumbled with the blanket before looked back to the surroundings. Vast lands with a thick snow resting on the ground and stars of every shape and size filling the sky with unimaginable numbers. “I don’t hate you.”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

The wind whistled and thickened its force before dying down suddenly. He gave a scowl before wrapping the blanket around his arms. “You shouldn’t have been involved. Not…” Bunny scowl loosened before looking down to the ground. “Not like this.”

Jack scoffed, “Yeah, yeah whatever. I get it.” He stood up, staff close to his chest. “I’m not worthy, or whatever.”

Bunny’s head turned so fast it almost snapped his neck as his scowl returned, “Ya know that’s not what I damn bloody meant!”

Jack narrowed his brows, “Bunny, you’ve done nothing but tell me that, repeatedly. Especially when I first came, you weren’t exactly subtle.” Jack shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the door, hand reaching the knob. “What else am I supposed to think that meant?”

Bunny opened his mouth to protest before clamping his mouth shut. And for a while, he said nothing.

“I’m sorry.”

Jacks eyes flickered away from the door then back to Bunny hand dropping to his side. “It’s… ok. You had to trust a stranger you had a bad experience with to not get kids killed and _not_ risk you guys from becoming wiped from existence. That’s uh,” Jack sat back down. “That’s stressful.”

“S ’not an excuse though,”

“But it’s true.”

Bunny stared at Jack, his chest tight and his eyes starting to burn.

Jack looked back at Bunny, “What?”

“I’m sorry.” This time, his voice came more unsteady then he wanted it, not that he planned to say it again in the first place.

Jack gave a nervous chuckle, “What for?”

Bunny looked back at the mountains and sky, then instead just his feet. “I would have blamed ya.” Bunny swallowed, “If you couldn’t have taken the shot and if Sandy did, I would’ve blamed you,” Bunny’s whole posture sunk further down, “Any failure, set back, or death I would’ve found a way ta blame yur for it.”

With almost every word Jack’s eyes widen and he hasn’t been breathing for a while, but that wasn’t anything unusual.

His ears pressed flat down his skull, “And all fer what? Huh? A prank you did over 50 years ago?!” Suddenly, Bunny’s jaw clamps shut. His paws clinging tightly to the blanket.

“It’s- I, um. At least you changed your mind. I’m not mad if it helps. And it didn’t actually happen, so, yeah…” The wind howled as they shuffled in place. Jack glanced to Bunny then back to the view, “So, um, I got see my memories,” He smiled. “I was right.”

He couldn’t explain why, but Bunny stiffened. “Right about… what?”

“That I died, when I became a spirit,” Jack said. “Drowned, to be exact.” Bunny’s fur bristled when Jack’s smile remained. “It explained a lot. And if it had to be then? I can’t think of a better way to go.” Jack shrugged as he leaned back, “Anyways, we should probably go inside.”

“Wait, mate,”

Jack paused.

“Do ya want me ta… Well, I was once the spirit of life,” Bunny said. “Still am.”

Jack tilted his head as Bunny fumbled over his own words and gestured to Jack, “And you're dead.”

“So…?”

“Do you wanna try something?” Bunny never felt more desperate to get the words out _right_ for once. “Do ya want to be truly alive again?” Bunny froze, “I can’t promise anything! But… but mate? I can try.” Bunny shuffled, “So, is that what ya want?”

Jack’s eyes widen in half of a second before he relaxed his posture. “Eh, Nah. I’m good.”

There was a long silence between the two of them, “How.”

Jack blinked, “How, what?”

“How…” Bunny hesitated, “How can ya be so _ok_ with this? I dunno who you were, or what you did, but-but ya died. You had that taken away from ya.” Bunny gestured to the entrance of Norths Workshop, “The rest of us? We had a choice. You? _Everything_ ye had taken away from ya.” His nose twitched, and his eyes narrowed, “I’d be angry.”

“Well, in all honesty, I was a bit pissed at the moon,” Jack rubbed the back of his neck. “Though that was really more because the damn rock wouldn’t tell me anything when I’d forgotten.” Jack glanced at the moon that has already begun to disappear, “Uh, Sorry.”

The moon, for a moment, it seemed to of glowed a little brighter before dimming.

Jack looked back at Bunny. “As the dead part, how should I react, honestly?” Jack shrugged, “Be angry at something I didn’t even remember properly? Cry forever?” Jack climbed on his staff and balanced at the crook, sitting down all the same. “It became more of a lifestyle? I guess? That was _not_ a pun by the way.”

Bunny rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, the point is: I’m left-handed, I have white anime hair as Jamie calls it, and I’m dead.” Said Jack, “At the end of the day, it’s just is what it is.” Jack drooped, “Though there are times I wish differently. But then I do things like this:”

Jack Frost threw a snowball, perfectly centered at Bunny’s face.

Bunny was so shocked that all the reflexes he build up over the years, every hours’ worth of training and fighting against the worse, against all odds, crashed out the window and fled, leaving his mind blank. He blinked.

He blinks twice before scowling, rubbing the snow off his face, “Why, _on earth,_ would ya-”

“Are you mad enough to chase me inside now kangaroo?” Jack tilted his head and leaped off his staff, ready for a pursuit.

“I- you-” Bunny shook his head, “Ya could of just bloody _asked_.” Grumbling all the while, he passes Jack and yanked open the door. “You com’en in as well or what?”

Jack's head tilts at the other direction, looking at Bunny curiously before shrugging. “Yeah alright, sure.”

Bunny gestured Jack to walk in first, totally not planning to throw a snowball in the back of his head, nope not at all.


End file.
